~ The Poet's Place Cafe~

Hi Jayne, The Ancient Welsh like the Ancient Irish are descendants of the Celts. Both use the term cynghanedd (kee-nah-ed) or cywddydd or "harmony of sound", a balance of sounds created by alliteration, assonance, consonance, internal rhyme, cross rhyme, end rhyme, repetition etc. Sound was as important as content to the ancients. Like the Vedic and Norse poets, they believed the sound of words literally held magic and connected them to the gods. The Vedic mantra is probably the best example of that.

Unlike English where alliteration etc is restricted to the line, harmony of sound may dictate that is cross lines or stanzas. Also unlike English where rhyme is on the stressed syllable, there are times in the execution of cynghanedd that the rhyme is on the unstressed syllable.

There are 24 official Welsh forms codified in the 14th century that give great detail of how each form should be written. It is in the study of the Welsh forms I first encountered the term therefore I am assuming the word derives from the Celts. Cynghanedd, harmony of sound is at the center of each form. And although the Ancient Irish were not as organized and didn't number and collect the form descriptions all in one book, their ancient forms take cynghanedd to another level and are among the most specific and complicated I have encountered.

There is much to learn from the ancients.

~~Tink